Contempt of sovereignty

Geoffrey Munnery, The Referenda Society, Newark, Nottinghamshire

12:01AM BST 30 May 2003

Sir - In its obduracy over calls for a referendum on the forthcoming European Constitution, the Government seems to be taking the advice of Louis Michel, Belgium's foreign minister: "I personally think it very dangerous to organise referendums when you're not sure to win them", a possibility the Government dare not contemplate.

In the face of justified criticism, Peter Hain loses no opportunity to remind us that the only nationwide referendum on Europe was initiated by a Labour government in 1975.

He fails to mention that the referendum was not held in deference to democratic principles, but forced on Harold Wilson by the need to resolve divisions in the Labour Party - and the government - over Europe. The referendum proved to be the little rubber life raft, as Jim Callaghan phrased it, into which they all had to climb.

Nevertheless, responding to an explicit question, the electorate voted to remain in the Common Market. It gave the government a decision on that particular issue and that is all it authorised - a decision that still stands.

In subsequent treaties, successive governments have surrendered, piecemeal, our sovereignty into the custody of European institutions, in the people's name but without their electoral endorsement. Implementation of the constitutionally crucial European Communities Act in 1973 without such an endorsement was the first step in the sorry story of the degradation of the democratic process in this country. To compound this offence by signing up to the European Constitution, whatever its final form, without a referendum, would be to hold the sovereignty of the people in contempt. A referendum must be held.